DVD Arch won't recognize aspect ratio

[pparker]

I have DVD Arch 4.5, using it to author mpg/VOBs encoded elsewhere. Sometimes, DVDA doesn't recognize that the video is 16:9 aspect ratio. However, every player plays it correctly, every other (of many) encoding tools recognizes it. Actually, DVDA even shows the correct aspect ratio in the Project information, but will not display the video properly.

It displays and then encodes the video as letterboxed in a 4:3 format, but then fills out the 16:9 dimension with black sides.

I've tried every setting I could find in DVDA to correct this, but no joy. Anyone have any ideas on why DVDA would refuse to respect the file parameters?

[guns1inger]

Check out the project properties. I have found that many problems with DVDA seem to stem from the a mis-match between the project settings and the assets.

[pparker]

well... it did work to change the settings on another try, though I also changed a switch in my transcoding app this time and re-encoded the file. I renamed the resulting mpg to VOB, which enabled DVDA to find the audio file. However, both the video and audio were deemed non-compliant. The aspect ratio was wrong again initially, but after changing the settings in the project, it did then display and render the video in proper aspect ratio.

However, the quality loss with DVDA is sickening (quite noticeable with anime). Why that engine is so bad, I don't know, but it still may be worth an extra hour of pre-processing to AVI with other apps BEFORE encoding to mpg for a 30 minute episode (...long story of converting the hell-spawned MKV container to VOB skipped...) in order to make sure it is fully compliant before loading into DVDA.

Appreciate your suggestion. It helped.

[MJPollard]

FWIW, I use DVDA and I don't let it do a single byte of encoding. I always create fully compliant encoded files first, either with Vegas or with TMPGEnc Plus 2.5. Any problems (such as the ones you're describing) with the input media are always traceable to me being stupid on the encoding end. As long as you feed DVDA compliant media, it's happy as a pig in a mudhole.

In my view, DVDA is an authoring program, not an encoder; use the right tools for the right jobs. IMHO, of course.

[pparker]

I absolutely agree. I can produce fully compliant files with ffmpeg, via DVDFlick, but I haven't found an all-in-one solution that works yet to transcode an MKV with soft subs directly to compliant MPEG-2/AC3 while faithfully rendering the subtitles. That's after hundreds of hours and many, many apps, both commercial and freeware. One app now will do the subtitles properly, but the mpg is non-compliant. The other produces compliant mpgs, but fails on the subtitles.

Of course, the odd thing is they both use ffmpeg to encode!

So I'm stuck at first transcoding to AVI, which actually requires two separate encodings to get the subtitles right (AllToAVI, AVI Recomp), then going from AVI to mpg via DVDFlick and then compliant files into DVDA. Amazingly, the apps are good enough that I notice virtually no quality loss throughout the entire process. It just takes way more time than it should.

I'm still working on how to use the good subtitle app (MediaCoder) to get compliant files by substituting the ffmpeg switches that DVDFlick produces into it. That's a chore in itself (...again, long story skipped...).

NEW SIG: MKV DIE, DIE, DIE!!

[guns1inger]

You don't have to create VOBs to get DVDA to find your audio. Create elementary streams (separate audio and video files) with the same names and DVDA will find all the parts without a problem.

[pparker]

Well, I haven't been down that track. Kept expecting that a GUI something could just transcode an MKV. But really, the problem isn't with video and audio. I can drop an MKV episode into DVDFlick (ffmpeg), set two parameters and half hour later have a compliant mpg that DVDA will accept without re-encoding (no need to rename to VOB in that case). The same with AVI or MP4.

The problem is the soft subtitles. Virtually no app can render them except AVI Recomp and a couple of the free players put out by the Matroska community themselves. I.e., you're stuck watching TV on or from your PC and forget sharing with a friend.

[guns1inger]

Extract the subs, convert them if necessary, then use them. On the few ocassions I have needed the subs from an MKV I have extracted them, converted them to srt, then authored with DLP. Problem solved.

[pparker]

sorry, google is failing me. What is DLP? Is that short for something?

[pparker]

gunslinger,

errr, sorry if I asked a really, really, really dumb question, but seriously, searching here or on google doesn't turn up anything useful for DLP and DVD authoring. Is this the TMPGEnc app? Or something else? I really could use that solution you mentioned.

[guns1inger]

DVD Lab Pro

[pparker]

Thanks much